The present invention relates generally to the casting and production of a cast steel railway wheel, and, more particularly to the cooling of such a cast steel railway wheel in a cooling tunnel after tempering.
The present invention represents improvements over the wheel casting method and apparatus set forth in Canadian Patent No. 1123571. The method and apparatus disclosed in that patent include a pouring station wherein metal is poured by a bottom pressure casting operation upwardly into two-piece molds comprising a lower drag section and an upper cope section. Shortly after pouring, the cope and drag sections are separated and the cast steel wheel is removed from the drag section. The wheel is gradually cooled when moving through a wheel kiln, and then subjected to certain processing operations including riser removal and hub cutting. The cast steel wheel is then passed through an annealing furnace, subjected to a water spray rim treatment operation, and then passed through a tempering furnace. At this time, the wheels were allowed to cool to ambient temperatures by simply placing the wheels vertically in storage inside the manufacturing facility. Such cooling operation typically took twenty-four hours and was considered a delay in the overall wheel manufacturing process.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for the production of cast steel railway wheels, specifically relating to the cooling of such wheels after tempering.